a couple q's from a prospective buyer of the Korg RADIAS

[taehaandrocky]

Hey everyone,

I am looking into possibly purchasing a korg radias and I had a few questions regardings its capabilities.

1.) Would I be able to plug a guitar or bass or sampler into it in order to use its sound sculpting and effects parameters on the guitar or bass? I know you can plug a guitar into the M3M in this way, and I was wondering if that was the case for the Korg Radias-R.

2.) To what extent can you sequence and "compose" complete songs within the Radias-r as a standalone unit? Or would you need cubase or some other software to plug the Radias into in order to actually map out and compose tracks?

3.) How effective are the drum and beat composing aspects of the Radias-r? I am not looking to plug a keyboard into it, so how good are the onboard pads in composing drum patterns and loops?

Sorry for the long questions, but any light that could be shed on any of these topics would be really appreciated! I am pretty new to synthesizers so any advice or knowledge would be really helpful to me.

[tpantano]

Well, I don't own a Radias so I'm not sure about 1 and 3, but as for 2, you can have 4 timbres- so therefore four sounds- at a time. It's then up to you to sequence, modulate, or arpeggiate them into a song. If you got creative, for example making your lead and bass play on the same timbre, or having the mod wheel completely transform a pad into a hit, you could create a song with more than four sounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE_bS942gWg

However synthesizers aren't generally purchased to completely make a song by themselves, although they certainly could. Usually when someone needs their keyboard to play a complete song, they turn to Arrangers and Workstations, which have features for arranging an entire song with multiple instruments. The downfall is that most of these only work with limited sample (recording) based synthesis, as opposed to manipulating electronic waveforms as a synth like the Radias does. Options such as an M3 with the EXB-Radias or the new Korg Kronos do combine a synth with a workstation's song making features.

Most modern synth-based artists either work by having a computer play a multitude of synthesizers via sequencing, or simply by playing over pre-recorded loops.

However, don't get discouraged- with some clever modulation and sequencing work, you can make a complete song on a radias. To put things in perspective, I have used my R3- which is essentially a small chunk of the Radias- to make a kick drum, snare, bassline and synth all in one patch (synth program). This would seem impossible at first, considering how the R3 has only two timbres at a time, and how there is no drum samples. Yet, with some clever keytracking, modulation and arpeggiation, I was able to make a patch with an automated bassline and drum pattern which I can play a lead synth over.

[axxim]

Welcome taehaandrocky

1: Yes you can use the inputs as an oscillator source for a timbre routing them thru the entire processing chain (filters, amp, FX. etc.). Even more you can set that output to the internal bus and use that as input for another timbre again. Some users here use the radias mainly as bass/guitar effects section.

2: The Radias has only two 16 [EDIT: 32] beat sequencers which can be linked to 32 [EDIT:64]. You will need a sequencer to compose things with more than 1 pattern .

3: It depends: If you do it with the Radias only then you have the 16 buttons to enter the drum patterns, more or less like in classic drum pattern machines. Since I haven't done it that way, I don't know exactly how easy it is compared to others. If you use the sound editor (which I recommend hearthly) you have the standard piano roll for the above mentioned sequencers to which one then must be assigned to the timbre that is set as drum map.

Note that each drum instrument "slot" can be edited in its envelopes, filter, sample, etc.

Until you haven't a good reason against a keyboard and would like to program your own sounds, I would recomend to use at least a (control) keyboard

[X-Trade]

2: The Radias has only two 16 beat sequencers which can be linked to 32. You will need a sequencer to compose things with more than 1 pattern .

Actually I'm pretty sure that it is 32 that can be linked into 64.

The rest here is solid advice. Radias is a great board and very flexible in what you can do and what sounds you can get out of it.

[axxim]

...
Actually I'm pretty sure that it is 32 that can be linked into 64.
...

Oops... sorry, I was uncertain and being away from home, the only hint I had was the 16 Buttons, but now I remember that for the seq they run twice.

[taehaandrocky]

thanks everyone. this information has been really helpful for me and I think I am going to save up and try and get me a Radias! Thanks again!

[taehaandrocky]

I had one other quick question too. What would be the general way to record sounds that I made in the Radias or with a guitar or bass hooked up to it into a software sequencer like cubase or logic? This might be a really stupid, obvious question but I am pretty much completely ignorant to how these kinds of things work.

[Rosen Sound]

an audio interface!